SAN JOSE -- Community activists have long accused San Jose police of disproportionately "curb sitting" minorities during routine stops and searches, but there has never been data to confirm or dismiss the charges.

Sometime in the next few months, after some internal wrangling, police say they will start collecting information that could shed light on the debate over alleged racial profiling by city police.

Since the beginning of the year, the breakthrough policy has been batted back and forth within police ranks. In one of his final acts as police chief in mid-January, Chris Moore sought to tackle the question head-on, ordering officers to start documenting age, ethnicity and location in traffic and pedestrian stops.

But soon after acting, Acting ﻿Chief Larry Esquivel suspended its implementation. The department said it needed to retool the plan, a move that came under fire this week when the annual report from the city's Independent Police Auditor lamented Esquivel's decision.

LaDoris Cordell, the independent police auditor and a retired judge, challenged the department's assertion that the original policy was overly broad and would be difficult to implement. Its adoption was a milestone in police-community relations, she said, and the suspension ran the risk of eroding trust from minority groups.

"I respect Acting Chief Esquivel. He has immediately established a positive working relationship with our office," Cordell said. "While I disagree with his decision to suspend (the policy) I remain hopeful that he will re-enact it without delay."

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Sgt. Jason Dwyer, a police spokesman, said the delay was necessary to update police computer systems to capture the data so it can be queried, and to narrow its focus to the most frequent instances. The department hopes to roll out the system over the next few months.

"If we have to experience a delay up front to do that, it's a small price to pay for something that will be very useful in the future," Dwyer said.

Moore's act would add a section to the department's duty manual, which guides police conduct. The addition, L-5108, mandates officers record the "justification, manner, duration and scope of the detention and/or search" even in instances where no one is arrested, according to the memo. It also required officers to record ages and races of those who are searched and detained without arrest.

"The primary purpose for documenting the detention and/or search is that it provides a record that can be used if the detention and/or search is the subject of a complaint, concern or questions from a member of the public," according to a memo Moore issued.

Moore issued it Jan. 14, five days before he retired. Ten days later, Esquivel suspended it "until further notice."

Moore understood the technological dimension wasn't yet in place, but he declared the policy "effective immediately" in his memo because he wanted his officers to get in the habit of taking down the information, according to city officials familiar with the drafting process. Moore declined to comment for this story.

Some in the rank and file initially balked at the breadth of the policy, which covered a wide array of detentions and searches. It was criticized as overreaching and encroaching on the judgment of an officer, being referred to as the "Don't-do-anything memo" in some circles with critics saying it would discourage officers from making stops to avoid burdensome paperwork. Dwyer said the policy is being narrowed to find a workable solution.

"The original memo covers everything," Dwyer said. "As far as detentions go, this is something that occurs a lot. We don't want to put officers in a position to de-police because it's too cumbersome and time-consuming to do that."

Dwyer said the revised policy will address three kinds of non-consensual searches and detentions: when a person is handcuffed, ordered to sit in the back of a patrol car or ordered to sit on a street curb.

Curb sitting has had a particular resonance in San Jose after "communities of color" complained about being targeted, Cordell said.

"They perceived an officer's order to curb sit as demeaning, humiliating and unnecessary," Cordell said.

The police auditor's evidence is anecdotal; she pushed for the new policy to remedy that.

Documenting events like curb sitting is new in law enforcement; recording information about traffic stops has been widely practiced, but pedestrian stops were often considered informal acts by patrol officers looking to proactively keep the peace.

"It's a newer field of data gathering. It's a very unexamined area," said Robert Weisberg, law professor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.

Raj Jayadev, coordinator of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a media, social-advocacy and business collective based in San Jose, said the policy and its execution are being closely watched.

"It's critically important for building trust between communities and police to have quantitative data and measurements for those interactions to move us beyond anecdotes and entrenched political positions," Jayadev said. "The community has been waiting for something tangible to hang their hat on to say this approach of working collectively with police creates a better environment."